Hampton plans science park as business stimulus

An aerial view of the Hampton Roads Center North at Magruder and Command… (Courtesy of Craig Davis…)

October 26, 2013|By Tara Bozick, tbozick@dailypress.com

Hampton can't mess up its opportunity to grow high tech, higher-paying jobs in its "last frontier" for development, the city's economic developers have been saying for years.

Since the 1990s, Hampton Roads Center North was envisioned as hosting companies that would commercialize technologies developed at NASA Langley Research Center a mile away. After a two-year study showed building out the 470-acre area as a research park wouldn't be feasible without more interest and money, the Hampton Economic Development Authority decided to focus development in 40 acres at the north entrance around the National Institute of Aerospace into a "science park" over the next five years. The city hopes the science park would eventually attract companies to the larger park.

The latest plans call for a high capacity computer cluster that could exceed the processing power of the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center in Suffolk and a fully equipped prototyping facility for product development as part of a $1 million regional project.

"We have a vision of building this out piece by piece," said National Institute of Aerospace President Doug Stanley.

The Hampton Economic Development Authority, which owns 220 developable acres in Hampton Roads Center North, approved giving up to $200,000 to the NIA for the high-speed computing system, which could be installed as soon as the end of the year, pending a final agreement. On Oct. 15, the authority also approved supporting the park's Peninsula Technology Incubator in going after a matching grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to establish a prototyping facility. The project calls for building a similar "fab lab" at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach.

In the middle of next year, Raleigh-based Craig Davis Properties — which has already built on 20 acres and invested $30 million there — plans to begin site preparation work for up to 160,000 square feet of office space in multiple buildings in 10 acres at Magruder and Commander Shepard boulevards near the NIA headquarters, said executive vice president Steve Mallon. The extension of Commander Shepard to Big Bethel Road, and eventually to the Newport News line, would improve accessibility to the park, which would make the area more attractive to development, said Director Leonard Sledge of Hampton's economic development department. The city would like to add eateries, a dry-cleaning service, a bank ATM and an extended-stay hotel, he added. Those retail services aren't yet in the works but the city is looking for development partners, Sledge said.

The science park plan is meant to make Hampton's last large undeveloped tract count for the local economy, said former Hampton mayor and economic development director Jimmy Eason. While the economic recession stalled plans, Hampton paid Axcel Innovation in Portsmouth $120,000 for a multi-phase study released in 2011 and 2012 to give developers a better idea of how to start.

"We have some challenges," said Dan Girouard, the city's asset manager

In addition to retail services, study feedback showed the park needed more meeting space, in particular a small stand-alone facility that could host classified meetings, Sledge said. While Sledge believes Hampton Roads Center North would be a "natural fit" for advanced manufacturing, aerospace and modeling and simulation-related companies, the study emphasized the need for creating an environment attractive to innovators or entrepreneurs.

"The key is, what are the right and best investments to make from a technological standpoint that are attractive to companies?" Sledge said. Hampton is now creating a new citywide strategic plan for economic development.

Another 'Tech Center'

About five miles away in Newport News, plans by two development companies and the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center are underway to establish a 100-acre "Tech Center" around the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in a larger $250 million project. Newport News envisioned a research park to spin off Jeff Lab technologies when it built the $16 million Applied Research Center at the lab's campus in 1998. Now, the research park has the backing of well-capitalized developer John Lawson, who plans to build housing and retail, including a Whole Foods store, near the Tech Center campus. Lawson expects to break ground on the retail phase soon.

While the Hampton science park isn't being led by private developers, Stanley said, it aims to differentiate itself with the computer cluster and a "fab lab," which would have equipment like 3-D printers and scanners, computer-controlled cutting and shaping machines, a laser cutter and casting and injection molding equipment so researchers could easily develop prototypes.